New Holland 451 sickle on an M7040

[jcummins]

Bought this sickle some months back, trying to put it to use, and running into an install problem.

The mechanism that raises and lowers the blade is an attachment to the sickle, that attaches to the top link on the tractor. I had multiple holes on the tractor and put in the lowest one, and left the hydraulic top link I have in the top position. The top link is intended to be unattached from the tractor and put onto the sickle part that attaches to the top link holes....but I don't see that making any difference.

The length of the arms for this blade raising lower mechanism is hitting the down links on the 3pt arms. I have a manual, and it reads in the manual, those arms have a secondary hole for a retaining pin that can be moved down 4 ", then the support arms cut off since they do interfere with some tractors. After reading that, that's what I did....and they still hit. See pic below of circle area that is hitting. Also, the second pic is the bolted on 'hook' for tension on this mechanism.....it appears those can be loosen then could slide up or down on this arm. Not sure if it did slide, whether this would help this situation or not.

Before I make further modifications, that don't work, has anyone ran into this, and how did they fix. It appears, I need to make some type of top link extension, just for mounting that special mechanism this sickle mower has.

 

[jcummins]

For anyone interested, got it functional. Those clamps on the arm had to be relocated to their highest position. That arm is notched on the bottom side for the bolts to position and hold the clamp. Cutting 4" off the top of those arms was needed too. Think this mower will be okay for my purpose, but the raising/lowering mechanism isn't to my liking.

 

[Dryerman]

I have a Kubota L4200 and I ran into similar issues. It quickly became obvious cutting off the tops of the rods wouldn't help. I took 1/2" plate and built bracket extensions for the top link bracket on the tractor itself. By bolting a 4" by 6.5" plate on each side catching two holes on each side of the tractor bracket and drilling a third hole to fasten the link I extended the connection point 4.5" further away from the tractor. This gave me the clearance needed for the lift mechanism so it no longer binds on the 3 point lift arms. I still have some adjustments to make to get the up and down travel on the bar where I want it, probably by shortening the cable assembly and moving the bolts lower on the two bars, but the mower is working great now.

 

[jcummins]

I have a Kubota L4200 and I ran into similar issues. It quickly became obvious cutting off the tops of the rods wouldn't help. I took 1/2" plate and built bracket extensions for the top link bracket on the tractor itself. By bolting a 4" by 6.5" plate on each side catching two holes on each side of the tractor bracket and drilling a third hole to fasten the link I extended the connection point 4.5" further away from the tractor. This gave me the clearance needed for the lift mechanism so it no longer binds on the 3 point lift arms. I still have some adjustments to make to get the up and down travel on the bar where I want it, probably by shortening the cable assembly and moving the bolts lower on the two bars, but the mower is working great now.

I ended up doing that also. But I as you have it working fairly decent now.

 

[DFB]

We had the same problems trying use the same cutter on a JD 4320 down at the orchard where I work. Short of modifying the adjusters NH does sell an extension kit for the toplink to move everything farther out and away from the tractor. If I remember right the manual lists the part# Worked just fine without modifications on our larger tractors M9000 and JD2855N

 

[dhacker]

Can you simply remove the raising/lowering mechanism on the new Holland 451 sickle mower and just hook it up using the other link? 2 pins and the whole bar mechanism can be removed. Just wondering cause i'm having the same problem..

 

[jcummins]

Not sure what you mean about the other link. I've got it working...but I don't like how the lift works. Doesn't lift it high enough. I've got another thread on possibly installing a hydraulic cylinder where the lift cable runs. And yes, the entire lift mechanism would be gone doing that. I think doing that would make it lift as it does now but with hydraulics. The issue I want to solve is to be able to lift the bar near vertical to get around obstacles. That much lift is going to require more thinking.

 

[tim5]

I could not hook up my NH 451 sickle mower to my NH TC55DA compact tractor the 3pt lift arms interfered with the top link mechanism on the sickle mower. After searching for solutions and reading here on TBN on using a top link extension I made this extension that pushes the top link hook up point back 6". Now I should be able to use the mower on the TC55DA. I had to use the mower on my JD2840.

 

[DFB]

I could not hook up my NH 451 sickle mower to my NH TC55DA compact tractor the 3pt lift arms interfered with the top link mechanism on the sickle mower. After searching for solutions and reading here on TBN on using a top link extension I made this extension that pushes the top link hook up point back 6". Now I should be able to use the mower on the TC55DA. I had to use the mower on my JD2840.

View attachment 501672

Ingenious! :thumbsup: